Boston Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown drove 15 hours from the greater Boston area to Atlanta, Georgia to lead protests in the capital of his home state of Georgia Saturday.
Intent on helping facilitate a peaceful protest in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Marietta native made the long trip to protest police brutality, and used his social media accounts to help direct protesters.
The Floyd arrest and subsequent death resulted from an officer kneeling on the neck of Floyd after using unapproved chokeholds to subdue the man, with no easing of tactics even as the man begged for help and lost consciousness.
The incident has sparked intense, nationwide protests sometimes flaring into violence and looting, though the Cal-Berkeley product and many others have done their best to prevent events from spiraling into chaos.
After encouraging others to join him earlier Saturday, fellow National Basketball Players’ Association vice president Malcolm Brogdon joined him, along with rapper Lil’ Yachty.
Brown not only helped direct the local protests, he also shared documentation of events on the ground for the world to see:
“Remember why we’re here!” Protest turns into March lead by @FCHWPO who drove 15 hours from Boston just to be here for a peaceful protest in his hometown #11Alive #bostonceltics pic.twitter.com/uhow5F2Lon
— Hope Ford (@hope_iam) May 30, 2020
Little Yachty gave an impromptu speech about the anger behind the protests — and the rioting.
“Unfortunately, we have to do [stuff] like this to get our voices heard,” he began, “but I feel like we’ve got to stand for something or fall for anything.”
“It doesn’t make any sense to me. As I sat home, and I’m trying to make it add up, as to why we have to go through breaking windows, or demolishing our — all this is ours. We may not own it, but we live here. We’re raising our families here and we’re building up our lives here. It’s unfortunate we got to do this, just to show our frustration.”
“It shouldn’t take that,” he added.
Brogdon also said a few words as well:
“I’ve got brothers, I’ve got sisters, I’ve got friends that are in the streets, that are out here that haven’t made it to this level,” he began. “That are … getting pulled over, discrimination, day after day, dealing with the same [expletive].”
“It’s systematic. This isn’t something that we come and — you know, we don’t have to burn down our homes, we don’t have to — we built this city! This is probably the most black city in the world, so let’s take some pride in that, let’s focus our energy, let’s enjoy this together, this moment we have leveraged right now.”
“We have a moment in time. People are going to look back; our kids are going to look back at this and say, ‘You were a part of that,'” he added.
“I’ve got a grandfather that marched next to Dr. King in the sixties. And he was amazing; he would be proud to see us all here. We’ve got to keep pushing forward. Jaylen has led this charge, I’m proud of him. We need more leaders, we need more people speaking [out].”
Brown also posted several messages in support of fellow protesters taken into custody by local police during the day’s events:
Nicole Baker and Terrance Foster please send me the third name waiting for them to post their bail
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 31, 2020
Send me their information or names if you know the people who were arrested
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 31, 2020
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